Simple but effective sail handling system that allows sail control to be carried out single-handed from the safety of the cockpit

ABSTRACT

Sail handling system and associated methods for sail raising, dousing, reefing, and stowing when operating sail-powered craft. The present invention allows these operations to be carried out single-handed from the safety of the cockpit in a wide range of wind and water conditions. The sail shape can be controlled continuously at any position as the sail is raised and lowered, offering a much wider range of sail configurations to suit wind conditions. The sail can self-fold/pleat neatly on top of the boom when lowered, ready to be covered. Preferred embodiments of the system incorporate one or more self-adjusting lazy jacks.

PRIORITY CLAIM

The present non-provisional patent Application claims priority under 35USC §119(e) from U.S. Provisional Patent Application having Ser. No.60/649,940, filed on Feb. 4, 2005, by Ma and titled SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVESAIL HANDLING SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS SAIL CONTROL TO BE CARRIED OUTSINGLE-HANDED FROM THE SAFETY OF THE COCKPIT, wherein the entirety ofsaid provisional patent application is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an improvement in sail raising, dousing, andstowing. It allows these operations to be carried out single-handed fromthe safety of the cockpit. The sail shape can be controlled continuouslyat any position as the sail is raised and lowered, offering a much widerrange of sail configurations to suit wind conditions. The sail canself-fold/pleat neatly on top of the boom as lowered, ready to becovered.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A conventional main sail set-up in the representative form of Bermudanrig 1 is shown in FIG. 1. The rig 1 includes a mast 2, boom 3, and sail4 rigged to the mast 2 and boom 3. The sail 4 includes a leading edge orluff 5, a bottom edge or foot 6, a trailing edge or leech 7, a lowerforward comer or tack 8, a lower rear corner or clew 9, and a top corneror head 10. The sail is raised or lowered by controlling tension on thehalyard 11.

Sail handling further involves operations such as partially lowering andreefing sail 4 when underway. This reduces the effective size of thesail 4 for de-powering depending upon wind conditions. As sail 4 islowered, the sail tends to fold, collapse, or otherwise lose its shapeunless tension is maintained along leech 7. Conventionally, leechtension is restored by tying off reef points 12 at boom 3. Sail 4 mayinclude one or several lines of reef points 12. For purposes ofillustration, sail 4 includes a single line of these.

The lowering of sail 4 typically requires at least one crew member to beon the deck in any weather conditions to fold/pleat or otherwise gatherthe sail 4 manually along the boom 3 and then tie it down using sailties via the reef points 12. This operation has been awkward at leastand often is dangerous in a rising sea and in windy conditions. Saillowering also is a difficult and risky activity when sailing shorthanded, especially single-handed. This method of sail lowering also isuncontrolled, relying mainly on gravity. The loose sail itself is ahazard and may injure or knock crew overboard, block the view, fall ontothe deck affecting the performance of other duty, and/or fall overboardinto the water.

The lazy jack systems (not shown) are an inexpensive way to control amain sail and boom when lowering a sail. A wide variety of lazyjacksystems are known, but all generally are intended to help support themain sail up on the boom, out of the way, until the sail is folded andcovered. Lazy jacks are effective for fully battened sails. U.S. Pat.No. 4,741,281, for example, uses lazy jacks to guide the sail when it islowered and uses a sail cover (bag) to catch the sail. U.S. Pat. No.5,327,842 constructs a multiple-line lazy jack on each side of the sailto form essentially a basket or nest to effectively catch the sail asthe sail is lowered. Inconveniently, the height of the lazy jack linesof this system are not self adjusted with the falling sail. The sailalso lacks a self-flaking system. This highlights a drawback of thelazyjack systems in that the sail still needs to be folded/pleatedmanually along the boom.

The roller furling system offers another way to manage sail handling. Inthese systems, a sail can be furled around a mast or boom. These furlingsystems have been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,371,037and 4,057,023. Both forms of this technology, boom furling or mastfurling, are relatively convenient to use. They do not require crew toleave the cockpit to operate. However, they are expensive, requirecomplete replacement of the existing rigging system, and they affectsail shape especially in light air. In addition, furling is not assuitable as might be desired for battened sails.

Other sail handling systems are also known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,506 usestwo or more lines threaded back and forth through vertically alignedrings in the sail to fold and hold the sail on to the boom when it islowered. This system is for a fully battened sail and requires sailcover modification.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,750 uses luff shackles and leach flaking devices topleat the sail. U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,952 flakes the sail using brailinglines to suspend the sail leech to the topping line. However, these twosystems lack a mechanism to prevent side blowing of the sail when nottied to the boom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention provides a sail handling system and associated methodsfor sail raising, dousing, and stowing when operating sail-poweredcraft. The present invention allows these operations to be carried outsingle-handed from the safety of the cockpit in a wide range of wind andwater conditions. The sail can self-fold/pleat neatly on top of the boomwhen lowered, ready to be covered. Preferred embodiments of the systemincorporate one or more self-adjusting lazy jacks. The system is useablefor many types of sails, including fully battened, short battened, nobattens; main, jib, Bermudan or Marconi rigs, lug sails, sprit rigsails, combinations of these, and others.

The system may be easily fit onto new or existing rigging systemswithout alteration of existing rigging. In other words, the system addsto, but need not supplant existing rigging components. This invention isnon-intrusive to conventional sailing activity, i.e. friendly toconventional sail reefing operation. Thus, this invention can beseamlessly employed or detached with no impact on the normal sailoperation. This invention is simple, easy to handle, economical, andlight weight.

In one aspect, the present invention relates to a sail handling systemcomprising at least one control line routed along a leech and a head ofa sail in a manner such that a tension on the at least one control linehelps to support the leech and exerts a downward force on the sail head.

In another aspect, the present invention relates to a sail head bridge.The bridge includes at least one bar member and at least one blockattached to the bar member. Bridge is attached to a head of a sail in amanner such that the bridge moves up and down with the sail head.

In another aspect, the present invention relates to methods of using thesail handling system and/or the bridge for sail handling.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a conventional, Bermudan main sail rig of the prior art.

FIG. 2 shows hardware components and rope basket lines of a sailhandling system of the present invention incorporated into a Bermudanmain sail rig.

FIG. 3 shows the sail head bridge used in the sail handling system ofFIG. 2.

FIGS. 4 a though 4 d show how a control line is incorporated into thesail handling system of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b show how sail lowering is carried out using themodified Bermudan rig of FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 a through 4 d.

FIG. 6 a shows an alternative embodiment of a sail handling system ofthe present invention incorporated into a Bermudan main sail rig thatincludes additional side rope rails/lazy jacks and sail catching ropenests/baskets on each side of the sail.

FIG. 6 b shows the sail head bridge used in the sail handling system ofFIG. 6 a.

FIG. 7 a shows an alternative embodiment of a sail handling system ofthe present invention incorporated into a Bermudan main sail riginvention that uses multiple control lines.

FIG. 7 b shows the sail head bridge used in the sail handling system ofFIG. 7 a.

FIG. 8 a shows an alternative embodiment of a sail handling system ofthe present invention incorporated into a Bermudan main sail riginvention that uses multiple control lines with additional side roperails/lazy Jacks and side sail catching rope nests/baskets on each sideof sail.

FIG. 8 b shows the sail head bridge used in the sail handling system ofFIG. 8 a.

FIG. 9 a shows an alternative embodiment of a sail handling system ofthe present invention incorporated into a Bermudan main sail rig usingadditional side rope rails/lazy Jacks and side sail catching ropenests/baskets on each side of sail.

FIG. 9 b shows the sail head bridge used in the sail handling system ofFIG. 9 a.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the present invention described below are notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed in the following detailed description. Rather the embodimentsare chosen and described so that others skilled in the art mayappreciate and understand the principles and practices of the presentinvention.

The present invention can be used to enhance sail handling and controlof a wide range of sailing rigs. For purposes of illustration, FIGS. 2through 5 b illustrate use of one embodiment of a sail handling system20 of the present invention with respect to a Bermudan rig 22. The rig22 includes a mast 24, boom 26, and sail 28 rigged to the mast 24 andboom 26. A portion 29 of sail 28 has been removed for purposes ofillustration to allow components of system 20 to be seen more readily onthe other side of sail 28. The sail 28 includes a leading edge or luff30, a bottom edge or foot 32, a trailing edge or leech 34, a lowerforward comer or tack 36, a lower rear comer or clew 38, and a top comeror head 40. The luff 30 is attached to the mast 24 via luff hanks 46.Luff hanks 46 are attached to sail 28 via grommets 45. Luff hanks 46 arealso slidably coupled to mast 24 for smooth raising and lowering of sail28. The sail is raised or lowered by controlling tension on the halyard42 led to head 40 through halyard block 44 fixed to the top of mast 24.Deck block 49 directs the main halyard toward the cockpit for easyoperation.

System 20 also includes an optional, but preferred, lazy jackfunctionality that helps to gather and support lowered portions of thesail 28 at the boom 26. As the sail is lowered, the folds, or pleats, ofsail 28 gather in “rope baskets” provided by the system 20. The lazyjack functionality is self-adjusting, and, therefore, is retainedregardless of sail position.

System 20 is easy to fit or retrofit onto a new or existing rig 22, asits hardware and rigging components are easily attached to rig 22 withminimal modifications being required. Advantageously, the sail handlingsystem 20 is fit or retrofit to a new or existing rig without anyalternation of the original rigging. The system can be used with a widevariety of sails, including main, jib, or other sails that are full,short, battened, boomed, boomless, batten-less, and the like. The systemdoes not interfere with sail shape, but rather helps maintain usefulsail shape over a wider range of positions than is available withconventional rigs. Thus, system 20 is simple to implement as well assimple to use.

In more detail, system 20 includes a bi-directional, auto stopping winch52 that is used for taking in and paying out a portion 53 of leechtension control line 54 from the safety of the cockpit (not shown) whileraising or lowering the sail 28. The bi-directional auto-stop winch 52helps to take in and pay out the control line 54 and provide suitabletension to the line to prevent it from tangling up. Winch 52 isconveniently mounted to a deck or cockpit top. The attachment isdesirably reinforced sufficiently to handle loads from line 54. Deckblock 55 takes the control line 54 from winch 52 and sends the lineupward to the sail head bridge 56. Sail head bridge 56 advantageouslymoves upward and downward with head 40 of sail 28 and serves as adynamic control point for rigging lines to be routed to and from sailhead 40 regardless of the hoisted position of sail head 40. The abilityof bridge 56 to follow head 40 up and down is an important factor inmaintaining leech tension as well as in allowing the lazy jackfunctionality to be self adjusting. Preferably, therefore, sail headbridge 56 is most desirably attached to sail head 40, although bridge 56could be slidably coupled to mast 24. Aft boom block 58 redirects thecontrol line 54 from boom elevation upward to the head bridge 56.Terminal 60 is used to fasten the fixed end of the control line 54.Blocks 62 and 64 are hardware constituents of the self adjusting,lazyjack functionality. These blocks 62 and 64 are attached to lines 66and 68, respectively. Lines 66 and 68, in turn, are attached to boom 26.Rope baskets are thus formed at least in part by lines 66 and 68 on eachside of boom 26 for gathering lowered portions of sail 28 as will bedescribed further below.

Leech hanks 67 are attached to leech 34 and help guide line 54 alongleech 34. As shown in the Figures, the leech hanks 67 desirably are longenough to let the sail 28 take its shape freely when loaded with wind.On the other hand, leech hanks 67 are desirably short enough to confinethe leech movement when the sail 28 is loose. By way of example, leechhanks 67 having a length of 15 cm have been found to be suitable for anexemplary sail have an area of 140 ft², a foot having a length of 10 ft,a luff having a length of 28 ft. and a leech having a length of 31 ft.

Preferably, each leech hank 67 is preferably matched to a correspondingluff hank 46 so that each leech hank 67 and luff hank 46 of acorresponding pair are at the same height above boom 26. In other words,an imaginary line connecting each leech hank 67 and its correspondingluff hank is preferably parallel to boom 26 when a portion of sail 28including the pair is raised. This correspondence is shown by theinterconnecting dotted lines among corresponding hanks 67 and 46 in theFigures. This correspondence greatly facilitates self-folding/pleatingof the sail 28 as sail 28 is lowered.

FIG. 3 shows features of sail head bridge 56 in more detail. Bridge 56includes bar member 70 having first end 72 positioned relativelyproximal to luff 30 and second end 74 positioned relatively proximal toleech 34. Luff block 76 is pivotably mounted to first end 72, and leechblock 78 is pivotably mounted to second end 74. Shackle 80 is attachedto bar member 70 at a convenient location intermediate between ends 72and 74. Shackle 80 may be used to attach bridge 56 to sail head 40. Thehalyard 42 may also be attached directly to shackle 80 if desired, oralternatively directly to sail head 40. Bridge 56 helps to managecontrol line traffic at the sail head 40. The length of the bar member70 and the location of the shackle preferably are selected such thatluff block 76 sticks out from the luff 30 while leech block 78 ispositioned rearward a short distance from leech 34.

FIGS. 4 a through 4 d best illustrate how sail handling system 20 isrigged. As will become apparent from the following discussion, controlline 54 advantageously performs many functions within system 20.Referring first to FIG. 4 a, control line 54 is routed from the cockpitto winch 52. Line 54 leaves winch 52 and is routed through deck block55. By passing deck block 55 and going upward, it reaches luff block 76on bridge 56. Luff block 76 directs line 54 back down towards block 62.

As shown in FIG. 4 b, block 62 directs line 54 aft towards boom block58. Boom block 58, in turn, directs line 54 up along leech 34.

As shown in FIG. 4c, line 54 follows leech 34 upward towards leech block78 of bridge 56. Line 54 is routed through each of luff hanks 67 alongleech 34. This allows line 54 to be tensioned as desired to controlleech tension. At the head of the sail 28, leech block 78 helps directline 54 downward toward block 64. Thus, tension on line 54 lifts block62 (and block 64 on the other side of sail 28), causing line 66 (andline 68) to form a rope basket constituent of a lazy jack system.

As shown in FIG. 4 d, block 64 helps to direct line 54 back at terminal60 where the end of line 54 is secured. Respective portions of line 54extending aft toward block 58 or terminal 60 from blocks 62 and 64, asthe case may be, thus provide respective rope rails for additional sailcatching nest/basket functionality along the boom 26 as part of the lazyjack system. Because line 54 is attached to bridge 56, which moves upand down with sail head 40, the resultant lazyjacks continuouslyself-adjust as the sail 28 is raised and lowered. Additionally, byselecting the length of lines 66 and 68, the location of attachmentpoints of these lines along the boom 26, and/or the location ofattachment points of blocks 62 and 64 on these lines, one can easilyadjust and achieve optimal sail catching/gathering over the boom 26.

Another rope rail is formed by portions of line 54 that extend alongleech 34 in the preferred embodiment. This rail confines the movement ofthe leech hanks 67 at all times. This rail also helps to prevent theleech 34 from falling away from the boom 26 when the sail 28 is lowered.

System 20 is easy to use and most if not all sail handling operationscan take place single handed from the safety of the cockpit. FIGS. 5 aand 5 b illustrate sail 28 being completely lowered. As a preparationstep, it is preferred to sail the boat into the wind, as has been doneconventionally. In order to lower the sail, one releases the halyard 42while maintaining a tension on the halyard 42 to prevent the sail 28from falling freely. At the same time, winch 52 takes in and maintainssome tension in control line 54. As shown in FIG. 5 a, the tension ofline 54 can be moderate for sail dousing. With halyard 42, the head 40and bridge 56 are pulled down under the downward force exerted by line54. The lazy jacks and rope rails formed by line 54 along the boom 26self-adjust automatically. The leech section of the control line 54, orleech rail, takes a new angle, but is shortened as well. The loweredsail 28 is therefore being confined within boundaries formed by the twolines 66 and 68 (functioning as lazy jacks), the rope rails formed byportions of line 54 extending aft of blocks 62 and 64 to the end of boom26, and the leech rail portion of line 54. Within the limited space ofthese boundaries, the lowered sail takes a natural wavy shape with thehelp from each of the leech-luff hank pair alignments, as well as thefabric conformability of the sail 28 itself.

Referring now to FIG. 5 b, while continuing to take in the control line54 while maintaining some halyard tension, the head 40 will come downtoward the boom 26 with corresponding leech hank and luff hank pairsaligned with each other. As a consequence, the sail 28 self-pleats/foldsand gathers within the cradle/basket of the lazy jacks and rope railsover top of the boom 26. The sail 28 is therefore well nested on theboom 28, ready for the sail cover (not shown).

For reefing, the sail 28 is only partially lowered. Also, more tensionis maintained in line 54 in order to tension the leech appropriately andthereby establish good sail shape in the reefed sail. If sea conditionsrequire reefing, the reef points 33 are fastened to the boom 26. Becausethe pleated sail 28 is well supported by its rope supports, this issafer to do than with a conventional sail rig.

Raising the sail 28 is also simple. One uses the halyard 42 to pull upthe head 40 of the sail 28 while letting the winch 52 pay out thecontrol line 54. As the sail 28 gradually moves up, the control line 54is extended accordingly. The auto stop mechanism of the winch 52 canmaintain a proper level of tension on the control line 54. This helps toavoid having an excessive amount of line 54 foul or otherwise entanglethe sail 28 or other hardware or rigging. In short, the system 20 ofthis embodiment allows sail raising to occur in a conventional mannerand its presence is transparent to the user. On the other hand, if insome urgent situations the sail 28 needs to be lowered quickly, the onlytask that needs to be done is to release the halyard 42 and let the sail28 drop. There is no need to deal with the control line 54 at thatmoment and it will fall together with the sail 28.

In order to test the operability of the invention, the Bermudan mainsail of a MacGregor 26 sailboat was rigged in accordance with theprinciples of system 20 described herein. Sail raising and lowering wereperformed successfully from the cockpit in 15 to 20 knots windyconditions.

An alternative embodiment of a sail handling system 120 is shown inFigs.6 a and 6 b fitted to Bermudan rig 122. Features of rig 122 similarto that of rig 20 described above are identified by a similar referencenumeral incremented by 100. Thus, whereas rig 20 includes mast 24 andboom 26, rig 122 includes mast 124 and boom 126, etc. However, ascompared to system 20 described above, system 120 includes additional,self-adjusting lazy jack functionality added to each side of the sail128 to enhance the sail catching performance of the device. A modifiedbridge 156 also is included to handle the additional rigging traffic atsail head 140. Specifically, the additional lazy jack functionality isaccomplished with additional blocks 169 (starboard side) and 171 (portside) and lines 186 (starboard side) and 188 (port side).

The modified bridge 156 is seen best in FIG. 6 b. Bridge 156 includesstarboard and port bar members 170 and 177. A starboard, mid-bridge,starboard block 190 is mounted to starboard bar member 170, and a secondmid-bridge, port block 191 is mounted to port bar member 177. Bridge 156further includes luff block 176, leech block 178, and shackle 180.

In this embodiment, control line 154 still goes through blocks 155, 176,and then 162. However, instead of going back directly to aft boom block158 as was the case for system 20, line 154 goes up to block 190 on thebridge 156 and comes back down toward block 169 to form one morelazyjack on the starboard side of the sail 128. Leaving block 169 and158, line 154 turns back up and goes through the leech hanks 167 toarrive at block 178 to complete the leech rail as before.

On the port side of the sail 128, line 154 comes down from block 178.Line 154 goes through block 164 and turns back up to block 191 to form afirst lazy jack. Line 154 comes down from block 191, goes through block171, and then terminates at terminal 160 to finish the second lazy jackand the rope rail. With one more lazy jack on each side and theresultant denser rope nest, the system 120 can catch/gather sail 128 onthe boom 126 more effectively.

Instead of using a single control line 54 or 154, multiple control linescan be used. Such an alternative embodiment of a sail handling system220 fitted to rig 222 is shown in Figs.7 a and 7 b, where features incommon with system 20 are identified by the same reference numeralincremented by 200 except as expressly noted herein. System 222 isidentical to system 20 except (a) starboard and port control lines 254and 257, respectively, are used instead of a single control line 54; (b)an additional port deck block 259 is used to help direct line 257; and(c) a modified bridge 256 is used. FIG. 6 b shows single winch 252 beingused to handle both control lines 254 and 257, but separate winches canbe used for each of lines 254 and 257 if desired.

The modified bridge 256 is shown in FIG. 7 b. Bridge 256 includesstarboard and port bar members 270 and 277, respectively. A starboard,luff block 276 is mounted to bar member 270, and a port luff block 279is mounted to bar member 277. Bridge 256 further includes shackle 280and one or more line attachments 278 proximal to the sail leech 234.

One can see in FIG. 7 a that the starboard control line 254 goes throughblock 255, block 276, and block 262 to form a starboard lazy jack. Line254 then passes through aft boom block 258 and goes up through part orall leech hanks 267 to terminate at an attachment 290 on bridge 256,which completes the rope rail on the starboard side and at least aportion of the leech rail. Line 257 does the same on the port side ofthe sail 228 to complete port lazy jack and rope rail there. It alsogoes up from block 258 and passes part or all leech hanks 267 toterminate at attachment 278 on bridge 256.

The embodiment of system 320 shown in FIGS. 8 a and 8 b is similar tosystem 120 shown in FIGS. 6 a and 6 b with similar features beingidentified by the same reference numerals incremented by 200. However,system 320 uses separate starboard and port control lines 354 and 357.Additionally, system 320 includes an additional port deck block 359 tohelp guide control line 357. Further, a modified bridge 356 suitable forsystem 320 is seen best in FIG. 8 b. Bridge 356 is similar to bridge 156except that bridge 356 further includes starboard luff block 376 andluff block 379. The leech end of bar members 370 and 377 provide anattachment point 378 for the control lines 354 and 357, respectively.

More specifically, port control line 357 goes through deck block 359,then through block 379 on the bridge 356, and then through block 364 toform the first lazy jack. Line 357 then goes up to mid bridge block 391and comes back to lazy jack block 371 to form the second lazyjack. Fromblock 371, line 357 proceeds to aft boom block 358. From block 358, line357 ends at attachment 378 after passing through all or part of leechhanks 367. Hence, line 357 finishes the port side formation of the roperail and the leech rail system. Starboard control line 354 is routedthrough winch 352, blocks 355, 376, 362, 390, 369, and 358, leech hanks367, and is secured at attachment 378 in a similar fashion.

Another embodiment of a sail handling system 420 is shown in FIGS. 9 aand 9 b. System 420 is similar to system 220 of FIGS. 7 a and 7 b withsimilar features being identified by the same reference numeralsincremented by 200, except system 420 includes additional blocks 461 and463. These additional blocks 461 and 463 allow portions of starboardcontrol line 454 to perform the lazy jack function via portions of line454 constituting lazy jack lines 466 and 468. In this case, unlike inFIG. 7 a, after control line 454 leaves block 462 (upper roller), itgoes to aft boom block 461. In stead of going directly up from block 461along leech 434 to terminate at the bridge 456, starboard control line454 heads for starboard lazy jack block 463. From this block, line 454is split. One portion 454 is routed back through lazy jack block 462 andis secured to boom 426 by point 482 to form starboard lazy jacksuspension 466, while the other split is routed through lazy jack block464 and is secured to boom 426 at a point similar to point 482 to fromport side lazyjack suspension 468. When sail 428 is lowered, theshortened control line 454 reduces the lengths of lazy jack suspensions466 and 468 such that the sail catching/gathering basket/cradle/nestshrinks along with the lowered sail. In the meantime, port control line457 is routed in a similar fashion as port control line 257 of FIG. 7 a,terminating at 478 of bridge 456. The bridge assembly for this case isshown in FIG. 9 b.

Other embodiments of this invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art upon consideration of this specification or from practice of theinvention disclosed herein. Various omissions, modifications, andchanges to the principles and embodiments described herein may be madeby one skilled in the art without departing from the true scope andspirit of the invention which is indicated by the following claims.

1. A sail handling system, comprising at least one control line routedalong a leech and a head of a sail in a manner such that a tension onthe at least one control line helps to support the leech and exerts adownward force on the sail head.
 2. The sail handling system of claim 1,further comprising a block is coupled to the sail head in a manner suchthat the block moves up and down with the sail head, and wherein the atleast one control line is routed through the block.
 3. The sail handlingsystem of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of blocks are coupledto the sail head in a manner such that the blocks moves up and down withthe sail head, and wherein the at least one control line is routedthrough the blocks.
 4. The sail handling system of claim 1, furthercomprising a bridge coupled to the sail head in a manner such that thebridge moves up and down with the sail head sail head, wherein thebridge has a first end and a second end, and wherein a luff block iscoupled to the first end and a leech block is coupled to the second end,and wherein the at least one control line is routed through the luff andleech blocks.
 5. The sail handling system of claim 1, further comprisinga bridge coupled to the sail head in a manner such that the bridge movesup and down with the sail head, wherein the bridge has a first end and asecond end, and wherein a block is coupled to at least one of the firstand second ends and at least one block is coupled to the bridge in aposition generally intermediate between the first and second ends, andwherein the at least one control line is routed through the blocks. 6.The sail handling system of claim 1, wherein the at least one controlline constitutes a component of at least one lazy jack.
 7. The sailhandling system of claim 6, wherein the at least one lazy jack isself-adjusting.
 8. The sail handling system of claim 1, furthercomprising a rope basket line having first and second ends attached to arig incorporating the sail and at least one rope basket block attachedto the rope basket line, and wherein the at least one control line isrouted between the at least one rope basket block and the sail head. 9.The sail handling system of claim 8, further comprising a boom blockpositioned proximal to an aft end of a boom, and wherein the at leastone control line is routed between the at least one rope basket blockand the boom block.
 10. The sail handling system of claim 9, wherein theat least one control line is routed along the leech between the boomblock and a block coupled to the sail head.
 11. The sail handling systemof claim 1, wherein the at least one control line is routed along theleech between a block attached to a boom and a block coupled to the sailhead.
 12. The sail handling system of claim 1, further comprising abi-directional, auto-stopping winch, and wherein the at least onecontrol line is routed from a cockpit to a rig incorporating the sailthrough the winch.
 13. A sail head bridge, comprising a) at least onebar member; b) at least one block attached to the bar member, whereinthe bridge is attached to a head of a sail in a manner such that thebridge moves up and down with the sail head.
 14. The sail head bridge ofclaim 13, further comprising one or more additional blocks attached tothe bar member, wherein at least one of the blocks is coupled to thebridge proximal to an end of the bar member.
 15. A method of sailhandling comprising the step of using the sail handling system of claim1 to lower a sail.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the sail ispartially lowered and the method further comprises the step of reefingthe sail.